The 31st F1 Beyond The Grid podcast of 2019 has Ralf Schumacher speak on his career, current role, son David and brother Michael and more.
Schumacher starts the F1 Beyond The Grid latest podcast by talking about his current life where he co-owns a kart and a single-seater team named US Racing. They compete in Formula Regional Championship with his son David as one of the driver.
He also works for Sky Germany. They discussed about the motivation behind running US Racing and also talk about Schumacher Jr’s progress so far. They then move to his own F1 career which started with a test run with McLaren.
He signed up with Jordan for his debut in 1997. They talk about the time there and also the 1998 Belgian GP, where team orders were applied by Eddie for Damon Hill. Schumacher reveals that wasn’t the reason for him to leave Jordan.
It was because earlier in the season Eddie gave an ultimatum about dropping him in 1999 if he didn’t score a point. That motivation trick backfired as Schumacher, who was already in touch with Williams, signed a intent contract then.
Before talking about BMW and Williams, they also discuss on his relation with Giancarlo Fischella. On the collaboration between BMW and Williams, he felt that the Grove-based team didn’t take as much help from the German manufacturer as they should have.
They talked about his first F1 win in 2001 San Marino GP at Imola and also his relation with Juan Pablo Montoya, who he reckoned was fastest in overall terms. They also talked about Jenson Button and also Alessandro Zanardi at length.
The topic shifted to Toyota, whom he joined next. Even before the deal was done, Schumacher was certain to leave F1 if things didn’t go his way after the end of the three years. That is what happened as he retired after 2007.
He felt the cultural differences in Europe and Japan was the prime reason for them to flourish. Looking back, Schumacher admits six wins in nearly a decade of racing in F1 is not much as he gave an example of Nico Hulkenberg, who has no podiums as well.
Despite that he felt happy with his career. When asked, he thought the 2000 Williams was a good car to drive and recalled the 2000 French GP, where he ran through the field from 18th to fifth. They then touched on the 2001 Canadian GP.
He won the race with his brother Michael in second. Schumacher also revealed that few days ago his son showed him a video of the same grand prix. They then discussed on the relation the two had and Ralf’s F1 career if Michael wasn’t there.
Towards the end of the podcast, Schumacher spoke about Charles Leclerc and Kimi Raikkonen, while also his son David, as to by which year we can see him in F1. He also talked about his life as a commentator and interviewer.
Here’s the last podcast featuring Jenson Button